The problem with maintaining privacy online is how the information we voluntarily share is being used by companies like Facebook. Technology is valuable – until it turns against us. When you discover your privacy has been violated, it can feel frightening and unfortunately, with today’s advancements in technology, it enables people, corporations, and governments to violate our privacy on a massive scale…whenever and wherever. With an increase in people tuning into technology to hear news about the coronavirus, who knows how involved the government and other surreptitious spies are listening into conversations.
Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo
Tattoos say a lot, so you don’t how to. What if a social media network turned out to be electronic tattoos? What if they provide as much information about who you are, just like a tattoo? Electronic tattoos are much more serious nowadays because we can take a picture and get facial recognition of almost anyone in the picture, and then retrieve information about them. Our electronic tattoos make us immortal because our information will remain online forever. The Greeks thought about when God, humans, and immortality mix. That time is now. An example from the Greeks was that Atalanta was the greatest runner and would challenge anybody. If you won, she would marry you and if you lost, you died. Hippomenes challenged and beat her. He won because he had all these little golden apples, and Atalanta would run ahead, and he’d roll a little golden apple, which distracted her and allowed him to win the race. All these little golden apples come and reach you, and want to post about them. We must be careful with what we publish online because we can’t undo it. The advantages of technology distracts us from the disadvantages it has. An example from Latin America about God, humans, and immortality combining was from the poet Jorge Luis Borges. He was threatened by the Argentine military junta, and asked “how else can one threaten, other than with death?” The answer is with immortality, which is what we are threatened with due to our electronic tattoos.
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| Juan Enriquez giving his TED Talk about Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo. |
The Small and Surprisingly Dangerous Detail the Police Track About You
NSA-style mass surveillance is enabling local police departments to gather vast quantities of personal information about anyone and everyone, which was never possible in the past. With these advancements, the government can observe the location of individuals and how private citizens interact. Also, local police departments make decisions about who they think you are based on the information the government obtains. A key technology to mass location tracking is “the innocuous-sounding Automatic License Plate Reader.” This technology captures images of every passing car and put into a list of cars wanted for wrongdoing. This Reader includes the date, time, and location the police department had captured the cars as well as where they were going and who they were with. Why is it okay for the government to collect this information? The reason it’s happening is because they think someday it may be useful. The government is using and abusing their power over individuals, and it is happening not just in the United States, but all over the world. These License Plate Reader’s aren’t the only tracking devices law enforcement agents have available to them. For example, they can use a device called StingRay to send tracking signals inside homes in order to identify the cell phones located there. People are even saying that smart home devices may be the governments way of listening in on domestic conversations.
How to Avoid Surveillance…With the Phone in Your Pocket
Telephone companies have provided wiretapping assistance to governments. Surveillance used to take place manually and wires were connected by hand and recorded by tape; however, technological advancements allowed companies to put surveillance features into the core of their networks. When you are on the phone having a personal conversation, the government, another government, or even another party/person could be listening in. Apple and WhatsApp have built strong encryption technology into their product, allowing people to communicate without an authoritarian figurehead wiretapping our messages. Governments are mad because tech companies have democratized these encryption to the default setting. Government officials believe all communications should be available to them, and encryption is making that difficult. Although tapping into terrorists, hackers, drug dealers, etc. communication services would be beneficial, “when you build a backdoor into a communications network or piece of technology, you have no way of controlling who’s going to go through it.”
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